Earlier this year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle shocked the world when they stepped down as senior members of the British royal family. Now, a royal expert is speaking out to reveal why Queen Elizabeth will not be cutting ties with Meghan like she did with Princess Diana, despite what the American actress has done.

Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers: William and Harry — The Inside Story of a Family in Tumult, said that at the time of Diana’s death in 1997, the Queen and her husband Prince Philip “had long ceased being fans of their ex-daughter-in-law.” However, Lacey believes that the Queen is trying to handle the current situation with Meghan differently than she did when Diana divorced Prince Charles in 1996.

“There’s a political sense…in which the queen welcomed her as a first mixed race recruit to the royal family,” Lacey said, according to Yahoo News. “And so it must be distressing for the queen that 30 months later, this mixed race recruit and her mixed race son Archie are no longer classed as royal. They’ve been suspended from the royal family.”

“If everybody welcomed Meghan as a sign of the royal family’s contact with Black Lives Matter and racial progress and harmony in this country, what does it mean when they’re separate from the royal family?” he added.

Lacey went on to say that the Queen’s love for Harry as his grandmother will also make her want to maintain a positive relationship with Meghan.

“There’s a sense in which the queen is closer emotionally to William and Harry than she is to her own sons,” Lacey said. “Whenever she’s been with Meghan, she’s exhibiting the most cordial, outgoing affection for her. We know that’s what she feels for Harry. We can presume that she will welcome anybody who makes her grandson happy.”

Immediately after Harry and Meghan announced that they were leaving the royal family, the Queen invited her grandson to lunch. During this meeting, the 94 year-old monarch reportedly told Harry that he and Meghan would be welcomed back to the royal family with open arms, should they ever choose to return.

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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